In 1938 Aston Villa's players defied an order to give the Nazi salute while touring Germany. They would be disgusted to see Villa fans giving it today.

Reluctant Aston Villa players giving the Nazi salute before the friendly match against a German XI side in Stuttgart

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An Aston Villa fan who gave a Nazi salute to opposing supporters would have the club’s heroes from the 1930s turning in their graves.

James Doyle made the “deeply offensive” gesture to Spurs fans – a club which has a large Jewish following – during a Boxing Day clash at Villa Park.

Doyle, a 22-year-old driver’s mate from Hodge Hill, admitted committing a religiously aggravated public order offence.

District Judge Jan Jellema, sitting at Birmingham Magistrates Court, banned him from football matches for three years and ordered him to pay a £155 fine.

He told him: “Though you may well have been going along with others at the time, you now understand how deeply offensive your behaviour was to others.”

It would have been deeply offensive to the renowned Villa team of 1938, which famously defied orders to give the salute while touring in Germany.

At the time Aston Villa was one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Everyone wanted to see the legendary claret and blue team managed by Jimmy Hogan.

Even the feared Third Reich, then flexing its muscles on mainland Europe before the full horrors of the Nazi regime, wanted to see Villa take on the best Germany had to offer.

But Villa’s heroes, abhorred by the ruthless reputation of Hitler’s henchmen, decided they would have nothing to do with the diplomatic niceties designed to placate Hitler and his cronies, and diplomats from the Foreign Office.

Instead of performing a Nazi salute to satisfy the German dignitaries, Villa’s heroes responded with a two-fingered gesture. It was the day the boys from Birmingham really managed to kid Mr Hitler.

Aston Villa fan James Doyle has been banned from football matches for three years for giving a Nazi salute

Villa had agreed to tour Germany long before Hitler’s horrors began to surface, so it was with some concern that Hogan’s heroes took on a German Select XI.

Only days before, an England side including Villa centre-forward Frank Broome had played against Germany in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

Before the game, the Three Lions, acting on advice from the Foreign Office, performed a Nazi salute to a packed house of 110,000, who roared their approval. England went on to win 6-3.

The players had been told that the political situation between Britain and Germany was so sensitive that it needed “only a spark to set Europe alight”.

So the England team reluctantly complied with the request.

On the following day, Villa played the first game of a three-match tour in the same stadium against an even stronger German Select XI, which included players from the recently annexed Austria.

The Villa stars were also advised to make the Nazi salute – but they refused.

What was seen as a lack of manners was heavily criticised in the German press after the game, especially as Villa triumphed 3-2.

But the controversy did not rest there.

Following fierce representations from the German Government, British diplomats were far more insistent in their demands that the Villa players pay tribute to their hosts before the next game in Stuttgart.

But again the boys from Brum turned the tables, and not just by winning the match 1-0.

Villa’s forward Eric Houghton later recalled: “The FA fella in charge of the England team had come to our manager and said ‘We’ve had a chat about it and we think it would be better if your players gave the Nazi salute to be really friendly’.

“We had a meeting about this, and George Cummings and Alec Massie said ‘There’s no way we’re giving the Nazi salute.’ So we didn’t give it in Berlin.

“It did leave a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth for them.

“At the next game in Stuttgart both teams gave the Nazi salute.

“But we went to the centre of the field and gave them the two-finger salute instead.

“They cheered like mad.

“They thought it was alright. They didn’t know what the two fingers meant.”

Hitler’s hierarchy failed to understand the typically English gesture and the Villa players went down in history as the team that defied the Nazis.

For many Villa fans, the ‘True Brit’ gesture and courage in the face of adversity were key factors that set Villa apart from the country’s other top clubs.